South Carolina cruised to a 90-48 win at Coppin State on Sunday. Here’s what stood out from the game.

– Alicia Tournebize made her debut against Texas, but she only played five minutes spread across two appearances. It was clear South Carolina didn’t trust her with more than a few plays yet, but it’s also hard to be productive when you basically only see two or three possessions on either side of the ball.

Tournebize played 13 minutes against Coppin State and had a couple of extended looks. She scored eight points and added a rebound, an assist, a block, and a steal. She showed nice touch on her first basket, a short transition jumper, and later reached around the defender for an off-balance layup.

Through two games, there is one clear trend with Tournebize. South Carolina’s guards aren’t quite sure where she will be when they look to pass, either on pick-and-rolls or off of dribble penetration, and passes have been off-target. 

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That is the challenge of joining midseason. Tournebize is getting lots of individual work with coaches, but that doesn’t help with timing. 

The rest of the team spent hundreds, if not thousands, of hours getting used to each other in the offseason and the preseason. Not only did Tournebize miss out on that, but at this time of year, practice is dedicated more to game-planning for upcoming opponents. 

– In terms of statistics, South Carolina’s bench didn’t do anything special. Some of that was because Joyce Edwards was taking up all the baskets, but they contributed in other ways.

Agot Makeer had six rebounds. Tournebize had her moments. Ayla McDowell hit a nice three-pointer. Maddy McDaniel continued to play. 

But the most important thing the bench did was eat up minutes. Ta’Niya Latson played 26 minutes, the most on the team, and Edwards and Tessa Johnson played 25 minutes. That’s a lot of valuable rest for them.

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– There are a lot of creature comforts that power conference programs take for granted, like luxurious locker rooms, training rooms, and large support staffs. 

Experienced officials are another one. The three officials working Sunday’s game each have three years of experience or less officiating college basketball, mostly in the MEAC and CAA.

They didn’t do a bad job, but you could tell, especially early on, that they were calling the game differently than how South Carolina is used to. There were also a few plays when they called fouls on South Carolina where I thought the play was clean, but they weren’t used to South Carolina’s athleticism.

Young officials have to get experience somewhere, and that means starting off at the lower levels of college basketball. So, next time you are annoyed with the officials, remember it could be worse.

(Reminder: College basketball officials do not work for conferences. There are no “SEC refs” or “ACC refs.”)